The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1887-08-12
THE MESSENGERS STORY.
BY W. L. HAWLEY.

"The life is not an cnyiable on
by any meaus," said an old expires
messenger, as he lit "A fresh ciga
and settled himself comfortably il
his chair.
"Strange things happen 10 II,
sometimes, and we carry our live,
in our hands, so TO speak. The
dread OF every messenger Is to have
a corpse GU his car. No mat ter how
strong mans nerves are, he feels
better when there are no stiff,
among his packages, especially il
he has night run.
"TEree years ago / had a night
run on the Southern Pacific road,
from Ell Paso to Tucson. The couu
try out there was wild then, aud
4Iaia robberes- %%eEs s-Gt-tlq Ct fEeqneHt oe;
currence. l had been on the run
three mouths without meeting an
accident of any kind, and began
TO believe my lucky star was in the
asceudancy. My run was a fast
express, which made few stops,
consequently had little local work,
but frequently carried large sums
of money going east. Right in the
widest part OF the country, and
twenty miles from settlement of
any kind, there was Il place called
Rock Cat. The road ran, for sever
al hundred yards, through "A narrow
rocky ravine, which had the appear.
ance OF cut, and was named ac
.cOrdingly.
"At this point three train rObber-
les occurred in as many weeks, aud
the engineers woul slacken speed
when they approached the danger.
Gus locality, tear of running into
some obstruction placed on the
track by the desperadoes. The ex-
press company lost little by the
rCbbelies, but the railroad company
offered u large reward for the arrest
OF the robbers OF course the rob
bers were not captured, but the
detectives learned that the gang
was headed by two brothers, named
Frank and Harry Blake. These
young desperadOes were we'll known
ia the Territories, having a record
of crime and bloodShed which was
surpassed Only by "Billy the Kid"
The express company placed
doubled locks on all the car doors,
and ordered all messengers to go
we'll armed and keep sharp look
out tor danger.
One Friday night about ten. days
after the last of the three rObberIes,
| stepped about my car at Tucson
for my regular run east to El PasO.
The night was dark and stormy,
aud resist the feeling as / would
something told me that there was
danger ahead. There was no one
to take my place, so | tried to tor
get my fears by getting ready for
the trip. Our leaving time from
Tucson was nine o'clock, but a bot
box caused delay of thirty miu-
utes. just before we were ready
to pull out truck was rolled out
of the express Office with a cofflu
on it, which was to go through to
Fort Worth. A shulder passed |
through me when 1 saw the long |
pine box, aud l could no longer
shake off the feeling that something
was going to happen. The only |
mOuruer accompanying the body |
was a woman dressed in black and
closely veiled. She was weeping
historically, but Watched the hand
ling of the coffin closely, and begged
that she might be allowed to ride
in the Express car, in order to be
near the body OF him she loved.
The agent politely told her the rules
would not allow it, and assisted her
TO a seat 10 the ladies' car.
The iron safe in my car contained
e65. 900 in notes aud gold coin, and
in two strong iron boxes there was
800, 900 worth of gold bullion for
the United States mint at New Or
leans. l closed aud locked the
doors and pushed the coffin down to
one end ofthe car, where there we're
only a few packages. We we're well
out of Tucson now, and flying
along through the darkness at the
rate of forty miles an hour. | sat
down on .he safe and lit n cigar,
but the effort to steady my nerves
vas failure. The coffin over in the
semi darkness at the other end Of
the car possessed a strange fascina-
ton for me, and / could not keep
nv eyes of IL. Finally I walked
over with my lautern aud looked at
it closely. II was not different from
other boxes Of a similar kind, ex- !